Hyperconvergence (HCI)

Hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) combines computing, software-defined storage and virtualisation in nodes managed as a system. It can simplify growth and operations through similar building blocks, but it does not remove network, licence, capacity or failure-domain dependencies. Adding a node increases resources according to product rules and may not fix the component that is actually constrained. Design should distinguish usable from raw capacity and consider replication, growth, maintenance, compatibility and failure behaviour. Central management eases change but also concentrates privilege. Backups, snapshots and internal redundancy have different purposes; data replicated within one cluster is not an independent recovery copy. Tests should measure representative workloads, rebuild, node loss, upgrades and restore. Commercial simplicity does not replace sizing or operating procedures.